PhillyClout Team

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the Butler County Republican who sponsored Pennsylvania's Voter ID legislation, fired off an angry news release Tuesday afternoon after a state Commonwealth Court ruling that voters will be allowed to cast ballots in the Nov. 6 general election even if they don't have state-approved identification. Metcalfe's ire was not aimed at the coalition of groups that opposed his legislation. Instead, he denounced as a "judicial activist" Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson for the ruling and Gov. Corbett for efforts to create a new state ID to help people vote.

Simpson, a Republican, upheld the law on Aug. 15 but was ordered by the state Supreme Court on Sept. 18 to re-examine the case to see if any voters would be disenfranchised. That order came from three Republican members and one Democratic member of the Supreme Court. Two other Democratic members wanted to issue a preliminary injunction immediately.

Metcalfe calls Simpson's new ruling "out of bounds with the rule of law, constitutional checks and balances for the individual branches of state government, and most importantly, the will of the people." He goes on to say the ruling is "skewed in favor of the lazy" who haven't obtained identification and accuses Simpson of "dereliction of legal authority."

And Metcalfe slams the Corbett administration for creating a new voter identification card for people who were having trouble obtaining other forms of state identification. He called that "beyond the scope of the executive authority for the Corbett administration" since the Voter ID law did not provide for the new identification.

Metcalfe accuses Simpson and Corbett of choosing to "openly enable and fully embrace the ever-increasing entitlement mentality of those individuals who have no problem living off the fruits of their neighbors' labor."